TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

"Screw the future this game is perfect in the present!"

Well who'd had thought it, Free Radical selling out to Electronic Arts. I was really beginning to fear for the well-being of one of the greatest FPS series ever, and who can blame me, EA are renown for terrible games (Fifa Street anyone?) As soon as Future Perfect hit the shops I got a copy and prayed that EA had done no damage, as it turns out Future Perfect exceeds the level of excellence set by Timesplitters 2 and that no meagre achievement!

The first thing that strikes you about this game has to be the graphics. They owe a lot to TS2 and still have that slight hint of a cartoon feel to them, but they also appear to be more realistic at the same time. Even better is the fact that Free Radical decided to include animations for reloading and they added the one thing that would have made TS2 better blood, lots of it.

Graphics are all well and good but that counts for nothing if the gameplay isn't in shape luckily it is. In yet another dramatic change from the previous game in the series you now play through every level with a “sidekick” besides offering some comic relief and giving you solutions to some of the games many puzzles they are also very helpful in a fire fight. Unfortunately this kills the difficulty level, if you're looking for the challenge of TS2 you won't find it here.

The other mayor addition to this game is that of time traveling. Often in the game you will come across your “future self” he will help you through a small part of the level and then you part ways, then you will have to travel back in time to meet your “past self” obviously this will mess with your mind if you think about it to much. so don't.

The story is pretty standard “oh aliens are invading earth” kind of stuff but its funny and never takes its ‘self to seriously.

It terms of Arsenal FP has ever other FPS beaten. You get pistols, shotguns, automatics and rocket launchers as standard in nearly every shooting game, but how many give you a device to control to gravity, ghost guns, baseball bats, and a grenade that slows down time?

Early in this review I complained that the story mode is too easy, but don't make the mistake of thinking that it's a short game. The levels are HUGE now with multiple checkpoints, and even when you beaten the story mode FP still has a lot to give. The arcade league gives you series of challenges that may start easy, but become nearly impossible as you progress through them, for each challenge you complete you get given a trophy, you get shameful bronze, so-so silver. glorious gold and the ever exclusive platinum, and believe me you will not rest until you have every platinum trophy in you collection. Even when you have the arcade league licked this game just keeps on giving, there's the challenge levels, that give you a series of seemingly random challenges, weather its curling monkeys or driving a remote control cat(I not making this up, I swear) all of them will keep you up all night. When you add over 160 unlockables, you have a package that's going to keep you going for a very long time.

Even when you've unlocked everything and earned every platinum FP will still stay glued it to your Gamecube simply because of its multiplayer. The levels are mainly good there are a few duff ones (Missile Bunker springs to mind as dose Venice) but Free Radical redeemed themselves by including the TRAINING GROUND and CHINESE and WILD WEST any Timesplitters fans should be going crazy to here that, and for any one to the series let me explain that those levels are the nuts (that's why I put them in capitols) The weapons also shine in multiplayer and you will develop a unique way to use each one. Even if you have no friend's the multiplayer is still awesome due to the increased intelligence of the bots, there not Steven Hawking but they do a good job.

So have Free Radical beaten the curse of EA (The curse reads that all game published by EA will be truly awful) not quite, lets have a look at what went wrong.
1. It freezes quite frequently (About once every 3 days) Guess who was in charge of testing this game, that's right EA!
2. As I already said the sidekicks slightly ruin the story mode (but they do add a lot)
And that's it, those are the only areas were FP drops below perfect.

So to sum up

Graphics
The graphics take on an original style and look very good. 9/10
Game play
A lot of new additions but the core is still untouched. 9/10
Sound
I've said nothing about the sound simply because I do not need to. Its not great its not poor, functional would be the best word to describe the sound. 7/10
lifespan
Story mode, arcade league, challenge, and a solid multiplayer mean you'll be playing for well over 6 months 10/10

Buy it now, 'nuff said

9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/05